goodrich did a little bit of everything sports wise he ran boxed handbalanced. was said to run the 100 yd dash in 9.8 as a 38 year old. he had a handbalancing act he was the understander. he also married the sister of vic and armand tanny. he doubled for many hollywood stars back in the day and did their stunts.

after grimek won the contest twice they made a rule that you could only win mr america once and that was it for you. so next up was 1942 frank leight born 1912 died 1990. frank usually won the best chest award in most contests he entered.

next in line the 1944 winner was steve stanko, the largest man till this point to win the contest. stanko was an avid weightlifter for the york barbell club. steve was the first man to total 1000 lbs in the three olympic lifts.

Although there is some controversy regarding who was the first AAU Mr. America, because the contest Goodrich won allowed professionals and amateurs, it appears to me, and there are several mentions in the old mags supporting this, that the first AAU-endorsed Mr. America was the one in 1939 won by Roland Essmaker.Strength & Health stated this on more than one occasion in the early years, then switched to indicating that Grimek was the first AAU Mr. America. Essmaker told me he had written to S&H asking why they were trying to re-write history, but got no satisfactory response.

Although there is some controversy regarding who was the first AAU Mr. America, because the contest Goodrich won allowed professionals and amateurs, it appears to me, and there are several mentions in the old mags supporting this, that the first AAU-endorsed Mr. America was the one in 1939 won by Roland Essmaker.Strength & Health stated this on more than one occasion in the early years, then switched to indicating that Grimek was the first AAU Mr. America. Essmaker told me he had written to S&H asking why they were trying to re-write history, but got no satisfactory response.

maybe it was because bob hoffman didn't approve of roland essmaker who was probably not a competetive olympic weightlifter. just a thought.